Reviews

They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl's Fight for Freedom by Dena Takruri, Ahed Tamimi

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Blood, Grief, Colonisation, Genocide, Torture, Police brutality, Murder, Confinement, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Body horror, and Hate crime

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Medical content, Medical trauma, Islamophobia, Child death, Suicide, Vomit, and Kidnapping

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Excrement, Religious bigotry, Pedophilia, Antisemitism, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Classism, Rape, Animal death, and Racism

eschorrlesnick's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Police brutality, Death, and Colonisation

Minor: Vomit

mageesprague's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

dabutkus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

Never has a book been so important at this moment and yet I don’t have words to describe the horrors and tragedy that Ahed has seen in her young life. Yet despite all the pain and suffering she’s witness, her strong and determination is amazing.  Spending eight months in a prison only causes her beliefs and determination to grow. 

I wanted to read a book from a Palestinian’s point of view and this book was a tough read but I leaned a lot while reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Antisemitism, Racism, Child death, Violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Murder, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Grief

tracey1981's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

I highly recommend this memoir of a young woman arrested as a teen for confronting Israeli soldiers during incessant raids on her home and small Palestinian community. This is a timely, inspiring, and infuriating read. The author provides good historical background on the occupation of Palestine as well as the author’s  path to becoming a freedom fighter as a child, her experience in prison, etc.

I was reminded, while reading this, of the power of social media in some situations. Tamimi’s story and others that she referenced became well-known because young people broadcast videos of their day-to-day realities in Palestine to the world. I tend to think of it pretty negatively in recent years so it was helpful to be reminded of the benefits. 

Perhaps the saddest thing about Tamimi’s story is how unexceptional it is. Many of the girls she was in prison with had much longer sentences than she did - sometimes several years. The idea of child political prisoners is absolutely appalling to me. 

I was also very aware as I was reading this, of the settler colonial parallels in Canada and my own complicity as a settler on these lands where the treaties are not well-respected, where Indigenous people have been and continue to experience systemic oppression, where white supremacy reigns. We have much work to do here, too, to achieve justice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

eveningcrickets's review against another edition

informative

3.0

baileymorrison's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring sad fast-paced

5.0

mondaysshelf's review against another edition

reflective

4.75

librosylagrimas's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring fast-paced

4.25

ahed tamimi te quiero mucho. me encanto este libro no solo porque admiro mucho a ahed, su lucha y su fortaleza sino también porque es excelente para empezar a entender la causa por la liberación palestina y el conflicto.

brim010's review

emotional informative inspiring fast-paced

4.5